Sony Probably Will Not Force 4K Into Next Gen PlayStation

This week at CES, Sony kicked off the pre-show press conferences with their annual media event. Like previous years, Sony used their time in the spotlight to unveil its upcoming products and services. To the surprise of no one, Sony made sure to really push 4K video as the next big thing for TV.

Following the press conference, Sony CEO Kaz Hirai sat down for an interview with Joshua Topolsky from The Verge to discuss the newly announced products and services. During their talk, Hirai re-emphasized the importance of their “3 core businesses” (imaging, mobile, and gaming) but also added that 4K is part of a larger strategy to “turn around the TV business.”

An interesting part of their conversation was about getting 4K content to consumers. Hirai admitted that for now these topics are still up in the air as the TV manufacturers needs to standardize a route they wish to go; considering that 4K content needs to be downloaded and limitations such as broadband availability plays a big factor in that. Movies alone are coming in way over 50gb and broadcast content isn’t even a thought at this point as cable providers do not have the bandwidth to deliver 4K TV networks to subscribers.

This uncertainty about 4K content and how it will be delivered at this year’s CES, especially with unannounced next generation consoles on the horizon, certainly makes it seem as though Sony won’t be forcing 4K into PlayStation anytime soon. It’s looking like 4K will be, at least at first, very much a niche product. But if omitting it altogether keeps the price of next gen hardware down, I can’t necessarily say that it’s a bad thing either.